Christopher Leigh Studio Blog

This Week’s Featured Wedding – As Seen on Good Morning America and CNN.com

The Waldie Family of Mesa, AZ is having a wedding beyond anything anyone can imagine.  When Kristen, the mother of these 5 siblings first contacted me the inquiry read “5 weddings and one mega reception.”  I had no idea how to respond and wasn’t sure what to think.  I was so intrigued I called her right away and asked her to tell me what this was all about and what was going to happen?  She proceeded to tell me that last year, none of the siblings were even dating anyone, and then one by one, they found that special someone and fell in love.  Now there will be 5 weddings on 1 day, something that will most likely never happen again, at least in my lifetime!

I’d love to tell the story, but I’m going to let Brooke (back row left) tell you in her own words how this amazing 1 day event came to be (read below!):

“The Waldie family has always been extremely close, and after years of waiting (some more impatiently than others), FIVE of the eight Waldie children fell in love. While they had all spent many hours thinking and talking about get­ting married, they never expected that it would all hap­pen at the same time! While each of the couples moved toward more serious relation­ships and closer to engagement, the joke started floating around the house that we should just combine all five wed­dings in to one big day. Doug Waldie (the father of the Waldie children) seemed the most excited about this joke becoming reality and made it a common discussion topic at home. As boys purchased rings and girls started thinking about possible dates, it quickly became a realization that to have FIVE weddings all within a few months would mean a lot of family and friends would not be able to attend every wedding.

What started out as a joke soon became a more serious option, and although some couples took more convincing than others, we all eventually decided that having our family and friends with us on our special day was most important (not to mention that the Waldie’s have always liked being unique).

So with that “The Mega Wed­ding” was born!    5 siblings, 5 Spouses, 1 day.

The question people most commonly ask after they get over the initial shock of such a rare event is “How will it all work?!”   And to that, all we can say is: You’ll just have to wait and see!!”

Meet Jillian and Walker Waldie. They met in high school. She went off to study at Brigham young University while he served a mission for his Church, a 2 year commitment. Their story is like straight out of a Mormon Taylor Swift song.

The beautiful dress Jiliian is wearing belonged to her mother. I love the symbolism of that. Wearing the same dress your mom promise her life to your dad. I  would feel honored if my Gigi wanted to wear her mom’s wedding dress someday. Though, I fear its a little too circa 2006 for that to ever happen. Jillian’s dress looks timeless and I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a little Waldie bride one day want to wear it too. If you do, call us Jill, we would love to do that shoot!  Congrats you two!  Thanks for having us be apart of your big day.

~ Rae

Emily and Will are one of a kind and perfect for each other.  They decided to take the plunge and go first in our mega wedding couple sessions. They met when Will came to work for her dad. Sound familiar to any country music lovers out there? Their first dance was perfectly paired with a song by Rodney Atkins titled, “Farmers Daughter“. Emily’s face lights up for Will and you can tell by the pictures Will feels the same way about her. The funniest shot of them is when we told hem to stand apart and lean in for a kiss. It was like the scene from the movie Hitch 90/10. Love Emily’s big eyes while Will leans in as far as he could! Next time we’ll be more specific on a 50/50 lean. We love you two love birds. Congrats on your new on life together!

~Rae

On a bicycle built for two, Sydney and Doug are a fun couple! We can tell their marriage is going to be full of laughs. They’re early morning shoot at the Mesa, Arizona temple was lively with their bright colors  purple and orange, his matching socks to her shoes, and a tandem bike.  They even made their grand exit riding away together on the big day!

From pinwheels to polk-a-dots the accessories looked like they were fresh off a pin board on Pinterest. I love that site. Why wasn’t it around when I was getting married? Sydney even had little pinwheels in her bouquet to add a splash of accenting color.

   Starting from the end. Megan and Bradford were our final couple’s shoot of the mega wedding. It was a beautiful, warm-okay we’ll go with hot- morning! Waldie’s do everything bigger. The week of their wedding the high never dipped below 112 degrees!

These two just returned to the States after living in England where they met. (jealous)  All this Olympic coverage has made me dying to go! They went to a few events before flying home including woman’s gymnastic  qualifying. Pretty sure these two have the best lives ever. Though I can’t imagine the stress of planning a wedding  5,000 miles away, oh yeah and planning a wedding with 4 other brides. We LOVE you Skype.

Megan was beautiful and a dream to photograph. Gorgeous dress and detailing, had a killer smile, and was blissfully happy that Bradford is now hers forever!